I would like to ask the more experienced people here how does the (allegedly) brutal rake impacts various aspect of our strategy at the micro stakes level.

I am currently playing at the bottom of the micro level on stars, so 2c/5c zoom and I'm in the process of building my rfi ranges and my 3bet ranges and learning the game in general following the launchpad.

I understand we ought to generally avoid limping and this is argued to be because of the rake, but I'm not sure i understand why that is.

It seems to me opponent who wants to come along for the flop - at this level- will do so whether there is a raise or two, so when I raise right now I'm thinking I'm doing it for value with premium hands and I think them folding pre must have a negligible impact, but maybe I'm either underestimating how much a pot here and there won preflop matters overall or there is some rake notion I don't fully understand.

I'm also 3betting for value with premium hands and I'm wary of the fact that a large chunk of population is raising AA** and little more than that (I'm getting my hud up and running too for that), so I rarely see a fold when I 3bet, a lot of time the pots ends up 3way with a cold caller (typically with funny hands with a pair hoping to bust AA) so again I'm not sure whether the take aggressive action works too much at this stake.

I'm not saying this argument isn't true, I'm sure it's true as soon as I go up a notch or two and i should keep it in mind, but I'd like to know if at the very micro range it is relevant and my reasoning above is misguide.

I also don't know about rake structure much apart that they take a share of every pot after flop and if you have any thoughts on how it generally affects our ranges/strategy I'd love to know.

Existing RFI and 3bet doesn't get changed. You'd cut a lot of your flats and move some of them into your 3bets.

Never limp.

Limping makes you rake a bigger % of the pot as the pot will not hit the rake cap as often. You want to either play a huge pot with advantage, or not at all.

People love to say they don't want to raise because people call anyway. If they call anyway, then you DEFINITELY want to punish them by making the pot as big as possible.

The pots are only raked, when a flop is dealt. Therefore any time you take it down preflop, you are beating the rake. This is huge, even if it happens rarely and a gigantic edge against players who limp instead.
Existing RFI's not changing seems a weird statement to make. Naturally hands that are almost neutral ev turn into losers, when the rake is considerably higher.

My personal adjustments, though I'm probably not this experienced micro crusher you are looking for and have never played higher than 50PLO8 for longer periods of time. Assuming 100BB stacks:
- Take aggressive actions preflop, whereever possible. My personal favourite is the squeeze against a funplayer's openraise and a tight regular's coldcall. It may not appear that way, but people do actually fold a lot preflop in zoom compared to regular tables.
- Play very tight value orientated ranges from early positions, but steal freely and a ton from BTN and SB. People 3bet so little and also fold to two barrels so much, I wouldn't be suprised, if you could play 80% profitably.
- Have a 4bet bluffing range against regulars that 3bet a lot.
- Only enter multiway pots with multiway equity hands, usually that means a good amount of nutted features.
- 3bet a ton for value from all positions, but also fold A high hands and paired hands against 4bets.
- Defend the BB a lot, if the pot will be headsup.
- Enter more pots, if it means playing headsup against a funplayer.